Content delivery methods and systems

ABSTRACT

Aspects of the present disclosure involve provisioning customers of an aggregator, such as a reseller, of a content delivery network (CDN). In one aspect, content requests to the CDN are processed in accordance with the virtual IP (VIP) address at which the request was received, according to a property template bound to the VIP where the template is selected by the customer and only involves discrete parameters for the reseller. In another aspect, cache fills of the network are processed without direct knowledge of the customer origin through a combination of some request attribute, e.g., alias host of the customer, and an attribute of the reseller to make a DNS request to a name server outside the CDN. Another aspect involves receiving a property template selection, an origin and an alias from a customer of the reseller, and providing appropriate DNS entries to validate the customer and provide origin information to the CDN.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/664,812 entitled “CONTENT DELIVERY METHODS AND SYSTEMS,” filed onJul. 31, 2017, which application is a continuation of and claims thebenefit of priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/454,594know U.S. Pat. No. 9,722,885) entitled “CONTENT DELIVERY METHODS ANDSYSTEMS,” filed on Aug. 7, 2014, the entire contents of which are fullyincorporated by reference herein for all purposes. application Ser. No.14/454,594 claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 from U.S. provisionalapplication No. 61/863,716 entitled “CONTENT DELIVERY METHODS ANDSYSTEMS,” filed on Aug. 8, 2013, the entire contents of which are fullyincorporated by reference herein for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Aspects of the present disclosure involve content delivery networks, andmore particularly may involve systems and methods related to a contentdelivery networks employed in conjunction with a content deliverynetwork reseller.

BACKGROUND

The Internet and the World Wide Web (the “Web”) have become ubiquitous.Content providers (publishers) now use the Internet (and, particularly,the Web) to provide all sorts of content to numerous clients all overthe world. In order to offload the job of serving some or all of theirproperties, many content providers now subscribe to content deliverynetworks (CDNs). Using a CDN, content can be served to clients from theCDN (i.e., from one or more servers in the CDN) instead of from thecontent provider's server(s). In a caching CDN, content may also becached on some or all of the CDN servers, either before being served orin response to specific requests for that content. Having content cachedwithin edge servers of the CDN enhances the performance of the CDNbecause the content does not have to be retrieved from origin servers orother locations, which are less efficient than edge servers in providingcontent.

Numerous forms of content, also referred to as resources, may be servedfrom the CDN. For example, television shows and movies may now beaccessed from any number of Web sites, and the shows and movies mayactually be served from the CDN. Print newspapers have migrated to theWeb and provide portals through which clients operating some form ofcomputing device (e.g., PC, smart phone, or tablet), with a browser mayaccess numerous forms of properties, such as short video clips,articles, images, and audio tracks. Software updates and patches, onceonly provided on disc and mailed to recipients, are now routinelydistributed to devices using only network connections, and the updatesand patches are often delivered from a CDN.

Traditionally, the CDN determines which property the request is for, andhence whether the request is for a legitimate subscriber (customer) ofthe CDN, by inspection of the incoming request. Generally speaking, eachcustomer of a CDN will have at least one property configured on the CDN.The property specifies the hostname of the origin, the port number usedby the origin, the protocol used by the origin, and other parameters.More specifically, determining legitimate requests thus involvesinspection of the incoming Host: header and in certain specialized casesthe first path element(s) (e.g., for the shared certificate securesockets layer (SSL) service or the application name in the case ofreal-time messaging protocol (RTMP)). In such a situation, each Host:header (or top level path element, etc.) that may be presented to theCDN is pre-registered with the CDN as an alias for some property, andmatching with the preconfigured property correlates with a legitimaterequest.

In some situations, a third party, such as a web site hosting companyprovides CDN reseller services to its customers. So, the third partydoes not actually operate a CDN but instead resells to its customers theCDN services of a separate CDN provider. In a high volume resellermodel, this would mean that a very large and changing number of suchaliases would be created and tracked by the CDN, and that the propertycreation and update rate of such would likely be equally high.Conventional CDNs are not particularly well equipped to deal with verylarge numbers of properties or with a high modification rate to theassociated alias tables or property parameters.

It is with these observations in mind, among others, that variousaspects of the present disclosure were conceived and developed.

SUMMARY

One implementation of the present disclosure may take the form of amethod of managing content delivery in a computer network. The methodmay include the operations of receiving a content request for content ofa customer of an aggregator of services, such as a reseller, of thecontent delivery network, the content request received at a virtual IPaddress of the content delivery network and processing the contentrequest based on a property template associated with the virtual IPaddress and provided for selection by the customer. The method mayfurther include the operations of identifying a host header from thecontent request and combining the host header with a fill template,where the combination identifies an origin of the customer for obtainingthe content of the customer to fill the content request. In oneembodiment, the combination of the host header with the template is auniform resource locator to a CNAME established by the aggregator, theCNAME providing the origin and implicitly verifying the customer of theaggregator. Further, the content request received at the virtual IPaddress may be from resolving a first CNAME record based on the contentrequest being initially associated with the alias and resolving a secondCNAME record associating the first CNAME record with the CDN, the secondCNAME record resolving to the virtual IP address based on a binding ofthe virtual IP address with the property template. The property templatemay be one of a discrete plurality of property configurations thatinclude at least one of a delivery region, a cache control setting, adomain protocol, an origin protocol, a query string setting and ageo-blocking. In addition, the present disclosure may be embodied in anon-transitory computer readable media comprising computer executableinstructions to perform a method and/or an apparatus.

Another implementation of the present disclosure may take the form of amethod of managing content delivery in a computer network. The methodmay include the operations of receiving a content request for content ofa customer of a aggregator of services, such as a reseller, of a contentdelivery network, identifying an attribute associated with a host headerof the content request and combining the attribute with a fill templateto identify an origin of the content, the identification of the originof the content not directly maintained by the content delivery network.In one embodiment, the content request is received at a virtual IPaddress associated with a property template associated with anaggregator of services of the content delivery network and definingproperty parameters associated with processing the content request. Thecombination of the host header with the template provides a uniformresource locator to a CNAME established by the aggregator, the CNAMEproviding the origin and implicitly verifying the customer of theaggregator. Further, the method may include the operations of resolvinga first CNAME record based on the content request being initiallyassociated with the alias and resolving a second CNAME recordassociating the first CNAME record with the CDN, the second CNAME recordresolving to the virtual IP address based on a binding of the virtual IPaddress with the property template. The property template may be one ofa discrete plurality of property configurations that include at leastone of a delivery region, a cache control setting, a domain protocol, anorigin protocol, a query string setting and a geo-blocking. In addition,the present disclosure may be embodied in a non-transitory computerreadable media comprising computer executable instructions to perform amethod and/or an apparatus.

Yet another implementation of the present disclosure may take the formof a content delivery method. The method may include the operations ofreceiving a selection of one or more property parameters associated witha pre-established property template, the property template associatedwith processing a content request to a content delivery network, theselection being received from a customer of a aggregator of services ofa content delivery network, receiving an origin and an alias of theorigin, the origin for obtaining content of the customer of theaggregator of services, such as a reseller, of the content deliverynetwork, the alias of the origin used by the customer of the aggregatorfor designating content to be served by the content delivery network,and establishing at least one first domain name system (DNS) recordoutside the authoritative name servers of the content delivery network,the at least one first DNS record creating an association between thealias of the origin and the origin such that a fill request from thecontent delivery network may be processed at the origin. In oneembodiment, the DNS includes a combination of the alias and a domain ofthe aggregator is established in an authoritative name server of theaggregator. Further, the DNS record comprising the combination of thealias and the domain of the aggregator may be only established for avalid customer of the aggregator of services of the content deliverynetwork. In one embodiment, the fill request from the content deliverynetwork may be processed at the origin without the content deliverynetwork having direct information as to the origin. In addition, thepresent disclosure may be embodied in a non-transitory computer readablemedia comprising computer executable instructions to perform a methodand/or an apparatus.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of thedisclosure will be apparent from the following description of particularembodiments of the disclosure, as illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings in which like reference characters refer to the same partsthroughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily toscale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles ofthe disclosure.

FIG. 1 depicts an example network environment in accordance withembodiments herein.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting a method of provisioning a customer of areseller of a content delivery network.

FIG. 3 is a system and flow diagram of components and operationsinvolved in provisioning a customer of a reseller of a content deliverynetwork.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart depicting a method of processing a content requestto a content delivery network, the request for content of a customer ofa reseller of the content delivery network.

FIG. 5 depicts an example resolution and content request with a CDNreseller configuration in accordance with embodiments herein.

FIG. 6 is a system and flow diagram of a processing a content request toa content delivery network, the request for content of a customer of areseller of the content delivery network.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart depicting a method of performing a cache fill forcontent of a customer of a reseller of a content delivery network, thecontent deliver network not having direct knowledge of the origin of thecontent to fill perform the cache fill.

FIG. 8 depicts an example computer system in accordance with embodimentsherein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments presently disclosed generally relate to content distributionand delivery in a network. The content delivery environment disclosedherein utilizes sets of preconfigured property templates to which aaggregator customer and/or aggregator may be associated. Aspects of thepresent disclosure are related to an aggregator of CDN services, whichmay involve an aggregated CDN, federated CDN, or a reseller of CDNservices. Aspects of the present disclosure are discussed with referenceto a reseller of content delivery network services; however, the presentdisclosure is more broadly applicable to any form of aggregator of CDNservices. The process of adding a new property of the reseller to theCDN then may involve identifying the appropriate template for theconfiguration needs of the reseller's customer, and then making a DNSentry at the reseller DNS server and CDN servers (or otherwise) toassociate the customer with an appropriate supername or virtual IP (VIP)addresses of the CDN. In one implementation, no knowledge of the resoldproperties is required at the CDN. One set of property templatesprovides a limited number of property configurations that the resellermay provide to its customers. The property templates provide one or moreconfigurations for the reseller customer to choose from, and accordingto which the CDN will serve the customer's content. The propertycoserver also may provide an origin template that may link an incomingrequest of a customer of the reseller with the customer's origin. Apotentially disjoint set of binding coservers associate specific virtualIP addresses of the CDN with a specific property configuration and thereseller. Thus, a request for the reseller customer's content will beprocessed by a machine associated with the assigned VIP, and will alsobe processed according to the configurations identified in the propertytemplate. Stated differently, the system involves at least two sets oftemplates related to the CDN. Finally, the system provides foridentification of content requests based on the reseller, and alsoallows for identification of the reseller's customer, and verificationof the reseller customer.

In place of using the value of the Host: header in an incoming requestto identify the property according to which the request will beprocessed (as in the case of a direct customer of a CDN), the virtual IPaddress (VIP) over which the request was received can be used since theVIP is preconfigured and associated with one of a plurality ofsimplified reseller property coservers, also preselected for thereseller customer, linked to the VIP by way of the binding coservers.The property configuration may itself be a template, allowing per-Host:origin servers to be selected. The mechanisms used to control this aredescribed below.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 suitable fordistributing content according to various embodiments, and to provide anintroduction to the methodologies by which content is requested andserved from a CDN. The term “content” as used herein means any kind ofdata, in any form, regardless of its representation and regardless ofwhat it represents. The term “content” may include, without limitation,static and/or dynamic images, text, audio content, including streamedaudio, video content, including streamed video, web pages, computerprograms, documents, files, and the like. Some content may be embeddedin other content, e.g., using markup languages such as HTML and XML.Content includes content which is created or formed or composedspecifically in response to a particular request. The term “resource” issometimes used herein to refer to content. A computer user (not shown)may access a content distribution network (CDN) 102 using a computingdevice, such as a desktop computer 104. The CDN 102 is illustrated as asingle network for ease of illustration, but in actual operation, CDN102 may typically include one or more networks.

For example, network 102 may represent one or more of a service providernetwork, a wholesale provider network and an intermediate network. Theuser computer 104 is illustrated as a desktop computer, but the user mayuse any of numerous different types of computing devices to access thenetwork 102, including, but not limited to, a laptop computer, ahandheld computer, a cell phone, a smart phone, a set-top box, a gamebox, etc.

The network 102 may be capable of providing content to the computer 104.Content may be any of numerous types of content, including video, audio,images, text, multimedia, or any other type of media. The computer 104includes an application to receive, process and present content that isdownloaded to the computer 104. When the user of computer 104 selects alink (e.g., a hyperlink) to a particular content item, the user's webbrowser application causes a request to be sent to a directory server106, requesting that the directory server provide a network address(e.g., and Internet protocol (IP) address) where the content associatedwith the link can be obtained.

In some embodiments, directory server 106 is a domain name system (DNS),which resolves an alphanumeric domain name to an IP address. Directoryserver 106 resolves the link name (e.g., a universal resource locator(URL) such as http://www.example.com) to an associated network address(e.g., 192.0.2.2) and then notifies the computer 104 of the networkaddress from which the computer 104 can retrieve the selected contentitem. When the computer 104 receives the network address, the computer104 then sends a request for the selected content item to a computer,such as streaming server computer 108, associated with the networkaddress supplied by the directory server 106. The DNS may contain anynumber of directory servers or name servers both within the CDN and outof the CDN.

In the particular embodiment illustrated, streaming server computer 108is an edge server of the CDN 102. Edge server computer 108 may be moreor less strategically placed within the network 102 to achieve one ormore performance objectives such as reducing load on interconnectingnetworks, freeing up capacity, scalability and lowering delivery costs.The edge server 108, for example, may cache content that originates fromanother server, so that the cached content is available in a moregeographically or logically proximate location to the end user. Suchstrategic placement of the edge server 108 could reduce content downloadtime to the user computer 104.

Edge server computer 108 is configured to provide requested content to arequester. As used herein, the term “requester” can include any type ofentity that could potentially request content, whether the requester isthe end user computer or some intermediate device. As such, a requestercould be the user computer 104, but could also be another computer, or arouter, gateway or switch (not shown) requesting the content from theedge server computer 108. As will be understood, requests generated bythe computer 104 are typically routed over numerous “hops” betweenrouters or other devices to the edge server computer 108. Accordingly, arequester of content could be any of numerous devices communicablycoupled to the edge server computer 108. In some instances, as usedherein, the term “requester” will refer to a device that is interactingwith a reseller customer, to obtain a resource from a CDN resold by thereseller to the reseller customer.

As part of the function of providing requested content, the edge servercomputer 108 is configured to determine whether the requested content isavailable locally from the edge server computer 108 to be provided tothe requester. In one embodiment, the requested content is available ifthe content is stored locally in cache and is not stale. As discussedfurther below, stale is a condition in which the content is older than aprescribed amount of time, typically designated by a “time-to-live”value.

If the edge server computer 108 determines that requested content is notavailable (e.g., is either not locally stored or is stale), the edgeserver computer 108 takes a remedial action to accommodate the request.If the content is locally stored but is stale, the remedial actioninvolves attempting to revalidate the content. If the content is notlocally stored or revalidation fails (in the case of stale content), theedge server computer 108 attempts to retrieve the requested content fromanother source, such as a media access server. A media access server(MAS) is a server computer that may be able to provide the requestedcontent. As discussed herein, the server may use a filltarget templateto retrieve the requested content.

In the illustrated embodiment, two possible media access servers areshown: a content distribution server computer 110 and a content originserver 112. Content origin server 112 is a server computer of a contentprovider, which may be a customer of a CDN reseller 118. In someinstances, as discussed herein, the origin server 112 is of the resellercustomer. The CDN is notified of the mechanism to determine the resellercustomer's origin during initial CDN reseller preconfiguration asdiscussed. In one implementation, the CDN has no direct informationabout the customer origin server. The content provider may thus be acustomer of a content provider network (e.g., reseller), while theorigin server 112 may reside in a content provider network 114, in someinstances discussed herein the origin server is maintained outside thecustomer network.

In some embodiments, the content origin server 112 is an HTTP serverthat supports virtual hosting. In this manner, the content server can beconfigured to host multiple domains for various media and contentresources. During an example operation, an HTTP HOST header can be sentto the origin server 112 as part of an HTTP GET request. The HOST headercan specify a particular domain hosted by the origin server 112, whereinthe particular domain corresponds with a host of the requested content.

The content distribution server 110 is typically a server computerwithin the content distribution network 102. The content distributionserver 110 may reside logically in between the content origin server112, in the sense that content may be delivered to the contentdistribution server 110 and then to the edge server computer 108. Thecontent distribution server 110 may also employ content caching.

In some embodiments, the edge server computer 108 locates the mediaaccess server by requesting a network address from the directory server106, which in some instances may be of the reseller and also verify thelegitimacy of a reseller customer, or another device operable todetermine a network address of a media access server that is capable ofproviding the content. The edge server computer 108 then sends a requestfor content to the located media access server. Regardless of whichmedia access server is contacted, the media access server can respond toa request for specified content in several possible ways. The manner ofresponse can depend on the type of request as well as the contentassociated with the request.

For example, the media access server could provide information to theedge computer server 108 that indicates that the locally cached versionof the content on the edge computer server 108 is not stale.Alternatively, the media access server could send the specified contentto the edge computer server 108, if the media access server has a newercopy of the specified content. In one embodiment, the media accessserver includes data transport server software, such as a HypertextTransport Protocol (HTTP) server, or web server. In this case, the edgeserver computer 108 interacts with the media access server using thedata transport protocol employed by the media access server.

With further regard to the communications between the edge servercomputer 108 and the media access server computer (e.g., either thecontent origin server 112 or the content distribution server 110), thetwo servers may communicate over a channel. These channels areillustrated as channel 116 a between the edge server computer 108 andthe content distribution server 110 and channel 116 b between the edgeserver computer 108 and the content origin server 112. According tovarious embodiments described herein, channels 116 are data transport,meaning the channels 116 carry data using a data transport protocol,such as HTTP.

The edge server 108 is configured to retrieve content using a datatransport protocol while simultaneously streaming content to the contentrequester. For example, the edge server computer 108 is operable tosimultaneously stream requested content to the requester (e.g., thecomputer 104) while receiving the content from the origin servercomputer 112 over the data transport protocol channel 116 b.

In order to provide efficient CDN reseller services within a CDN asdiscussed herein, the CDN being resold is first configured for suchservices. The CDN is configured based on the requirements of thecustomers of the reseller. Generally speaking, a reseller of CDNservices (“cdnreseller” or “reseller”) provides a conduit by which acustomer of the reseller may obtain CDN services from a CDN that is notoperated directly by the reseller. Often, the cdnreseller offers otherservices to the customer besides CDN services, such as web hosting, DNSand Internet service provider (ISP) services. The CDN maintainsreferences, when providing content pursuant to the configuration, of thecdnreseller and the cdnreseller's customer. Accordingly, the CDN mayaccount for usage by the cdnreseller, and the CDN may advise thereseller of CDN usage by its customers—the customers obtaining CDNservices by way of the reseller.

More particularly, a CDN reseller configuration discussed herein mayemploy pre-defined property templates for the resellers to offer to itscustomers. In this way, the CDN avoids configuring and managing enormousquantities of discrete properties that would otherwise be required if aconventional direct customer model is used. The CDN may also bindvirtual IP addresses to the reseller property templates. Namely, alimited number of property templates (also referred to as “coservers”)may be defined and associated with a particular reseller's customersbased on a limited set of CDN property specifications or parameters.Accordingly, the limited set of property templates of the CDN providessome configurability as to how the CDN will service requests for thecustomer's content and manage the content within the CDN. The systemalso provides an association between a customer alias and a customerorigin such that the system may identify the origin (e.g., origin 112)to fill a request on an edge 108 when content is not cached in the CDN.Accordingly, preconfiguration provides a mechanism for determining theorigin from which to retrieve requested resources and how to manage thecaching and delivery of the resource and other attributes.

Secondly, binding may be achieved by associating VIPs to servicespecific cdnreseller property templates. Thus, a request received at aVIP may be processed according to the property template of the CDNreseller. Moreover, the property alignment may be maintained forindividual reseller customers without establishing unique properties foreach reseller customer. The binding coserver may thus include resellerspecific binding property attributes rather than generic attributes.Note that it is possible to utilize a property coserver as a bindingcoserver—generally though, multiple binding coservers per-propertycoserver may be desirable to provide regional binding.

Property Templates

According to an example embodiment, and with reference to FIGS. 2-3 and5, a set of property coservers are set up by CDN 515 for different setsof configurations/templates. For example, a property coserver can be theauthoritative source of a particular resource. The new property coserverconfiguration/template defines how to dynamically map a request host tothe origin host without configuration by the origin network 114. In thisvein, the CDN 515 would then maintain a mapping, indirectly, of thisspecial DNS name to the origin storage 530 through a filltarget templateas discussed below. Each property coserver is given a supername (such aswith attributes of a property template and resellerpropertytemplateA.cdnreseller.com, propertytemplateB.cdnreseller.com,etc.) and would be associated with a set of virtual IP addresses (VIPs).The number of VIPs determines the footprint (bindings) of the property(how many locations can service requests for a supername).

To provide a manageable and efficient arrangement, the number ofproperty templates may be limited. In one example, a customer of areseller may select from a limited number of property templates, whereeach coserver defines some limited set of content delivery parametersthat govern how the CDN will process requests for the resellercustomer's content. For example, each coserver may provide somecombination of the parameters of:

1. delivery region;

2. cache control setting (time-to-live (TTL));

3. domain protocol;

4. origin protocol;

5. query string setting; and

6. geo-blocking.

The delivery region parameter may define within which regions the CDNwill provide content delivery for the customer's content. For example,the customer may select North America, and thus any customer requestswith a delivery target within North America will be handled by the CDNpursuant to the parameters of the coserver. The TTL parameter defineshow long content should remain cached within an edge server of the CDN,and is a way for a customer to control the freshness of its content. If,for example, TTL is one day, then any content stored at an edge serverfor more than one day would be considered stale, and the edge serverwould not deliver the cached content but instead seek a fresh copy ofthe content from an origin server or otherwise. TTL may be implementedwith a cache control header override (CCHOMode) parameter that allowsthe CDN to override some cache control headers that would otherwise makethe content uncacheable or interfere with CDN TTL settings. The domainprotocol indicates the protocol by which the alias domain communicates(e.g., https). The origin protocol parameter defines the protocol bywhich the origin communications (e.g., https). The query string settingallows content (resources) to be cached based not on the complete URLincluding the query string as the cache key but rather allows some orall name value pairs of a query string to be excluded from the cache keyso that resources that are unique only based on the query string may beefficiently cached. In one specific example, the query string settingmay refer to query string handling mode (QSHMode). A coserver mayinclude some combination of these parameters, and may also include otherparameters. The coserver however is meant to be limited in nature andnot necessarily provide all of the possible property attributes normallyavailable to a direct customer of the CDN.

Referring now to FIGS. 2-3, to provision a CDN reseller service, areseller customer 300 operating a computing device 302 with a browser304, for example, contacts a reseller server 306 operating a web portal,graphical user interface (GUI) or other mechanism 308 whereby thecustomer 300 may obtain and define reseller CDN services. Within the GUI308, the customer may provide its origin (e.g., www.example.com), itschosen alias (cdn.example.com) and also select from a limited set ofpreconfigured property templates (operation 200). The property templates310 may provide a preselected arrangement of various property parametersincluding but not limited to delivery region, cache control (TTL),domain and origin protocols, query string setting, and geo-blocking. Theproperty templates may also provide for some level of customization ofcertain fields. For example, the user may select from the U.S., Europeand Global, as delivery regions. The user may select from variouspossible protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, etc. The provisioning componentmay involve an HTTPS RESTful API whereby the customer or the resellermay provision a new resource (e.g., set up a new customer of thereseller that will use services of the resold CDN), alter an existingresource, and delete an existing resource.

The provisioning operations also involve CNAMEing 312 or otherwisecreating a mechanism by which the alias is associated with the CDNmaintaining an association with the customer and reseller (operation210). Stated differently, the system needs to get a content requester104 to the right binding (e.g., server 108) when someone tries toresolve the customer's CDN alias (e.g., cdn.example.com). To do this, aCNAME record 312 may be established between the customer and the CDNreseller within the DNS infrastructure responsible for resolvingrequests related to the customer domain. For example, a first CNAMErecord in the form of: cdn.example.com CNAME INcdn.example.com.cdn.cdnreseller.com may be established in theauthoritative name servers for the customer. Here, the record includesreference to both the customer alias (used when it seeks to have contentserved from the CDN) and a reference to the cdnreseller. In someinstances, the authoritative name servers will be those of the reseller.The CDN reseller may then create a second CNAME record between thecustomer/reseller and the CDN, so they would have a similarly genericpolicy of for example: cdn.example.com.cdn.cdnreseller.com CNAME INcdn.example.com.cdnreseller.c.CDN.net. Here, the record includes areference to the customer alias, the reseller and the CDN itself fromwhich the reselller has resold CDN services to the customer. It shouldbe noted that the CNAME from the alias may not be direct to the CDN.Instead, the system uses a CNAME into a generic intelligent trafficmanager (ITM) name appropriate for the customer property (example:cdn.example.com.cdnreseller.c.CDN.net). The second CNAME to theappropriate bindings is then created, or that name could simply be a CDNsupername or other record identifying a correct binding coserver.

The initial two-CNAME chain is for management convenience at thereseller. One benefit is that if the CDN makes a different nameavailable for the reseller, only a single change is needed within theDNS system of the reseller to move all of its customers that were usingthe old name to the new (rather than having to change a potential largenumber of entries if a direct mapping is needed). Similarly, if thereseller decides to move from one DNS name to another amongst the setpreviously provided by the CDN, they can more easily do so.Additionally, another benefit stems from when the DNS of example.com ismanaged by the owners of example.com rather than directly by thereseller. With this style, the customer creates a CNAME fromcdn.example.com to something within their resellers network (e.g.,cdn.example.com.cdn.cdnreseller.com) which they are more likely to becomfortable with rather than handing things off directly to the CDN(with which they may have no relationship). So, it makes things‘cleaner’ for the customer of the reseller. Finally, the CNAME chainalso allows the reseller to manage things a more directly and allows thereseller to perform multi-CDN share balancing, etc.

The property coserver template also should define how to dynamical map arequest host (domain) to the origin host (origin) without configurationby the CDN reseller. Namely, during set-up, the cdnreseller customeridentifies the origin host (e.g., www.example.com) and the alias host(e.g. cdn.example.com), which will be associated with any resourcerequest from the customer to the CDN. Accordingly, any resource requestusing the customer's CDN alias will include a host header ofcdn.example.com, and which may be used to identify the associated originof www.example.com. A filltarget template 314, which may be associatedwith the reseller templates, combines the customer alias with acdnreseller extension (a sub domain, for example), the combination ofwhich may be resolved through DNS (e.g., reseller DNS) to locate thecustomer origin to fill any request. The examples herein are set forthwith respect to the template being formed through a combination of thehost header and a subdomain of the reseller. However, it is possible touse other attributes of the request in conjunction with some attributeof the reseller to generate the fill target and thereby contact theorigin. By updating reseller DNS to process a completed filltargettemplate URL, a valid result from the DNS implicitly confirms thelegitimacy of the reseller customer relationship (i.e., the resource isfor a valid customer of the reseller) and of the request to the CDN. Forexample, the filltarget template 314 may specify the fill target addressas ${host}.origin.cdnreseller.com; when a request is received at the CDNfor a resource, the value ${host} in the filltarget template is replacedby the received HTTP HOST header. So a request for cdn.example.com willattempt to fill from, in this example,cdn.example.com.origin.cdnreseller.com. In one specific implementation,that would be a CNAME to, in this example, the origin serverwww.example.com. The name template in the filltarget template 314 would,in the implementation, be under the control of the reseller. Thismechanism allows the target of the CNAME to be to a name outside the DNScontrol of the reseller, for example if the owners of example.com managetheir own DNS service.

More particularly, when referencing a coserver, the main propertyconfigurations work as normal, for specifying request and fill-sidehandling modes (caching policy, query string handling, etc.). Thefilltarget template, however, may be employed to define the fill target(the origin server from which to obtain content if the edge cache doesnot have a valid copy, for example). As will be discussed in more detailbelow, an incoming resource request is associated with a propertycoserver due to the VIP over which the request was received as opposedto a feature of the request. Cache fills may be performed to a templateorigin server fill target name. In the degenerative case, this could bea constant (if all content from the reseller's customers could be filledfrom a single origin server IP address). In the general case, the originservers can be scattered across multiple sites within the resellercloud, or even off-net.

Stated differently, to be able to identify which names are legitimatewithout requiring per-name configuration within the caching engine, aDNS solution is described. A template origin server fill target isconfigured, and legitimate subscribers of the reseller configured intomatching names. For instance, a subdomain of cdnreseller.com may be used(example: cdn.cdnreseller.com). In order to fill content for the hostcdn.example.com (cdnreseller's customer) a template is used to generatea fill request where the template includes origin.cdnreseller.com and itis combined with cdn.example.com, to formcdn.example.com.origin.cdnreseller.com. The reseller defines a CNAME forthat URL or otherwise defines the URL in its DNS, so that if that nameresolves, then the CDN caching engine knows that this is a legitimateCDN reseller customer; if the name does not resolve, the request can berejected as invalid. The origin and alias are provided by the customerso that the CDN recognizes the request from the alias host and may applyit to the filltarget template. The filltarget template may be generic toall property templates or each property template may be associated witha distinct filltarget template.

For SSL, the CDN may have a shared certificate associated with ahostname of something like secure.cdnreseller.com and the incomingrequest would then identify the origin server from the first pathelement, which may be of the form:https://secure.cdnreseller.com/example/. The property coserverconfigured around the HTTPS property would have a different originserver template—e.g., $(TOPDIR).cdnresellerhttps.com and the CDN wouldinclude example.cdnresellerhttps.com to point to asecure-origin.example.com.

This origin server identification DNS name could alternatively bemanaged within an ITM policy for reasons of both opacity and to minimizethe lift on the part of the CDN reseller. For the sake of example, theorigin server identification domain may be origin.cdnreseller.com.

The CDN provides some number (depending on unique property configurationparameter needs) of initial property coservers(configurations/templates) from which to select. For example:

1. Property template A: no CCHOMode for the origin server specifiedcaching policy,

2. Property template B: 10 minute TTL on all resources

3. Property template C: 10 minute TTL with QSHMode enabled

4. Property template D: 24 hour TTL with a Domain Protocol of HTTPS

5. Property template E: 12 hour TTL with a Origin Protocol of MatchRequest

6. Property template F: 60 minute TTL with QSHMode enabled

Each template (coserver) may also be defined with other defaultparameters. For example, each property coserver may allow for flash ormp4 ‘scrubbing’ to be used. Moreover, other parameters of each coservermay be included, with these parameters simply being examples. In anyevent, in the example discussed, there are six (A-F) property templatesdefined, each with a different set of parameters in some combination ofthe seven example parameters introduced above.

When a new CDN reseller customer is to be added onto the CDN, theappropriate coserver is selected based upon the configurationrequirements of that customer, as discussed above where the customerselects a template. Alternatively, the system may be configured toprovide a set of queries to the customer, such as through the GUI 308,the answers and selections being used to select a preconfiguredtemplated best matching the customer selections.

Upon addition of the customer, a DNS entry is added into theorigin.cdnreseller.com domain (reseller name servers, for example) thatwould indicate from where the cache fills should be directed for thealias hostname associated with that customer. So, for example, thereseller's name servers may include a CNAME to the origin (e.g.,www.example.com) relying on initially be directed to the name serversfrom the filltarget template. Also, if the customer uses the name(alias) cdn.example.com for those resources that should be served viathe CDN, the name cdn.example.com.origin.cdnreseller.com may also becreated within an intelligent traffic monitor (ITM) to identify theorigin server for cache fills.

Setting up Binding Coservers:

Referring to FIG. 2, setting up the CDN to handle reseller servicesbased on the concepts discussed herein, may also involve binding VIPswith CDN reseller property templates (operation 220). Referring again tothe six cdnreseller property templates, in this instance four new‘reseller’ VIPs are created, and could be assigned to the same set ofmachines (initially) but could also be split across the set of clustersassigned to the reseller. To facilitate binding, a second type ofcoserver that may be employed is a binding coserver that connects thecustomer's alias name (e.g., cdn.example.com) to the appropriate VIPs onCDN clusters that are associated with the customer's property coserver(based on selections made by the customer). Continuing with the sameexample embodiment, CDN 102 would create a set of DNS names (e.g., fournames) for each of the six example property coservers (A-F), with eachmay also be distributed across multiple slices (e.g., 6):

-   -   slice1.propertytemplateA.cdnreseller.NA.c.CDN.net    -   slice2.propertytemplateA.cdnreseller.NA.c.CDN.net    -   . . .    -   slice4.propertytemplateA.cdnreseller.NA.c.CDN.net    -   slice1.propertytemplateB.cdnreseller.EU.c.CDN.net    -   slice2.propertytemplateB.cdnreseller.EU.c.CDN.net    -   . . .    -   slice4.propertytemplateB.cdnreseller.EU.c.CDNnet    -   . . .    -   slice1.propertytemplateF.cdnreseller.GLOBAL.c.CDN.net    -   slice2.propertytemplateF.cdnreseller.GLOBAL.c.CDN.net    -   . . .    -   slice4.propertytemplateF.cdnreseller.GLOBAL.c.footprint.net        The reseller would then assign each customer to one slice, by        creating a CNAME from, for example,        cdn.example.com.cdn.cdnreseller.com to a selected slice name.        The geographic selection made by or on behalf of the reseller        customer would determine which group of names to select amongst        (e.g., slice[1-4].propertytemplateA.cdnreseller.NA.c.CDN.net if        only North America delivery was to be utilized); which slice        number would be based upon reseller policy—selection could be        random, round-robin, or based on the library size of the        resellers customer. In the preferred embodiment, load on the CDN        would be evenly distributed over the slices.

Note that the set of DNS names could be made less obscure; for instance,propertytemplateA′ could be replaced with ‘noccho’, ‘propertytemplateB’with ‘10 min’ and ‘propertytemplateC’ with ‘10minq.’ Further note that‘c’ indicates a canonical name or “CNAME.” In this instance, thedelivery region is also identified in the URL as NA (North America), EU(Europe) and GLOBAL (the worldwide CDN network). According, in analternative, geographic restrictions (e.g., some content only served toNorth America) could be introduced at the ‘slice’ level rather than atthe coserver level (e.g.,slice1.propertytemplateA.NA.cdnreseller.c.CDN.net where NA refers toNorth America).

As discussed herein, a CNAME chain may be employed to CNAME from thealias host (e.g., cdn.example.com) to a CDN reseller name (e.g.,cdn.example.com.cdn.cdnreseller.com), which would then CNAME to the CDN(e.g., cdn.example.com.cdn.cdnreseller.com CNAME INcdn.example.com.cdnreseller.c.CDN.com). The binding coserver identifiesthe binding between the reseller and customer to the reseller propertytemplate for the customer and the CDN VIP for the reseller propertytemplate. The binding may be reflected in a CNAME record such as:

cdn.example.com.cdnreseller.c.CDN.com CNAME INslice1.propertytemplateA.cdnreseller. NA.c.CDN.net. The CNAME willresolve to a VIP associated with propertytemplateA of the cdnreseller.

In the case of the front-end DNS being handled by ITM, such slices wouldnot need to be preconfigured. When the reseller is providing DNS, suchslices provide flexibility of binding management without needing to havethe reseller alter existing DNS entries at some point in time; whenusing ITM, CDN operations may alter the existing names to split trafficacross multiple slices when and if the need arises. CNAMES may bemanaged with the reseller DNS, other DNS, or maybe managed with an ITMof the CDN. An example ITM (also referred to as an adaptive trafficcontroller (ATC)) is described in co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/259,497, filed Sep. 30, 2002, and titled “ConfigurableAdaptive Global Traffic Control And Management,” (published as US2003-0065762 A1); and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/976,648,filed Oct. 26, 2007, titled “Policy-based content delivery networkselection,” and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/880,324 titled“Handling Long-Tail Content in a Content Delivery Network (cdn)”(collectively the “ITM applications”), the entire contents of each ofwhich have been incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. Asystem such as ITM (described in the ITM patent applications mentionedabove), allows a kind of hostname (called a supername) to refer tomultiple servers, and resolves the supername to a nearby server.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 6, an example request flow may be performedas follows. A user generates a content request (operation 400). Asillustrated, the request may be generated from a computing device 600operating a browser 602. In one particular example, the user hasaccessed a reseller customer's page and has requested content associatedwith the preconfigured CDN host domain (e.g., cdn.example.com/ . . . )So, for instance, an HTML page within the browser may include one ormore links (embedded resources (ER)) to content to be served from theCDN. Those links may include a reference to cdn.example.com.

Next, the request is resolved by a resolver 604 and returns a VIP 606directing the browser to contact a CDN device that may serve therequested resources based on the reseller property template of thecustomer (operation 410). Generally speaking, the client's resolvercommunicates with one or more components of DNS to resolve the request.In one specific instance, DNS includes a CNAME to the CDN reseller. Forexample, cdn.example.com CNAME IN cdn.example.com.cdn.cdnreseller.com.The first CNAME may be maintained in the authoritative name server 608of the customer domain (e.g., example.com). The reseller may thenmaintain, in its name servers 610, a second CNAME to the CDN.cdn.example.com.cdn.cdnreseller.com CNAME INcdn.example.com.cdnreseller.c.CDN.net. At this point, the authoritativename server 610, or other component of the CDN, is contacted to providea VIP 606 according to the established binding coserver. As shown, theCNAME includes the customer domain (cdn.example.com) as well as adesignation of the cdn reseller (e.g., . . . com.cdnreseller.c . . . ).Accordingly, the CDN may identify the binding coserver and build orotherwise provide a final CNAME for a VIP for the devices that willserve the content. In the case of multiple slices for each coserver,slices may be assigned in a round robin policy. Hence, for example, thefinal CNAME may be slice1.propertytemplateA.cdnreseller.NA.c.CDN.net,which resolves to a specific VIP.

The user device than initiates an HTTP request to the VIP (operation420). The request includes the host: header (e.g., cdn.example.com).Because the VIP is linked to the property template, the content may beserved in accordance with the property template associated with thereseller customer. If the content is cached, it will be served.

Referring now to FIG. 7, on a cache miss, the server attempts to obtainthe requested content using the filltarget template (operation 700). Theconfiguration of the filltarget template allows the CDN edge to createthe outbound fill target as $host.origin.cdnreseller.com by applying thehost header with the fill template of the cdn reseller(${host}.origin.cdnreseller.com). DNS, which may involve theauthoritative name server of the cdnreseller, is contacted to resolvethe generated hostname (operation 710). If DNS includes a CNAME for thegenerated fill target, then the DNS reply implicitly confirms thevalidity of the request (operation 720). Namely, the cdn resellerrequires a CNAME for each concatenated fill target for each of its validcustomers. Moreover, the reseller receives the customer origin (e.g.,www.example.com) at provisioning and thus can create the proper DNSentries at successful provisioning. Ultimately, for a valid customer,the IP address of the customer's origin is returned to the requested CDNdevice (operation 730) whereby the content may be obtained at the IPaddress of the origin and then delivered to the requesting user(operation 440)). Depending on the property coserver, the content maythen also be cached based on a TTL parameter of the coserver if present.

The CDN may track discrete reseller customers through identifying hostsheaders (aliases) on specific VIPs, which receipt of a request at a VIPassociates a customer with a reseller. With the reseller customer andreseller information, the CDN can provide per customer usage data forbilling and send that information to the CDN reseller. Such usage datamay include quantity of outbound data served from the CDN, (e.g., GB ofoutbound data) for each customer, number of CDN transactions for eachcustomer, the number of CDN transaction for each zone (e.g., zone1—European/North American locations, zone 2—all other locations).

FIG. 5 provides a different perspective on the concepts discussedherein, and an example request flow. As shown, client 505, which isoperating a computing device capable of requesting content from thereseller customer, is in communication with a CDN 515 and DNS 510. Atstep 1, the client resolves the name cdn.example.com. At step 2, theclient's DNS server 510 recursively resolves cdn.example.com via the DNSresolver which is CNAME'ed to cdn.example.com.cdn.cdnreseller.com. TheCDN reseller authoritative DNS server CNAMEs to the CDN(cdn.example.com.cdnreseller.c.CDN.net). The CDN's authoritative DNSserver returns a VIP appropriate for that user and a list of NorthAmerican binding coserver VIPs geographically close to the user. So, atstep 3, the clients DNS server returns the list of binding coserver VIPsprovided by the CDN DNS resolver authoritative DNS server.

In step 4, the client 505 sends an HTTP request to the CDN 515 to theprovided VIP, the Host: header in the HTTP request containscdn.example.com. The CDN recognizes that the request came in on aspecial binding coserver VIP which is used to select the appropriateproperty coserver and deliver the content to the client 505. On a cachemiss, the configuration of that property coserver allows the CDN edge tocreate the outbound fill target as $host.origin.cdnreseller.com.

Accordingly, in step 5, the CDN 515 performs a DNS query which hits theITM policy mapping cdn.example.com.origin.cdnreseller.com towww.example.com or other DNS functionality of the CDN. In step 6, theauthoritative DNS service 525, which may be the reseller DNS, resolveswww.example.com to the IP address of the server hosting the service forwww.example.com. In step 7, the DNS system returns the IP address ofwww.example.com as IP www.www.yyy.zzz. At this point, in step 8, the CDNforwards the HTTP request to www.www.yyy.zzz (e.g., origin storage 530designated by the customer). In step 9, origin storage provides theresponse (e.g., the requested content), which is cached by the CDN forsubsequent lookups. In step 10, the CDN (e.g., edge server 108) returnsthe resource to the client 505.

FIG. 8 is example schematic diagram of a computing system implementing aserver, or other computing device, such as DNS server, ISP resolver, CDNresolver, DNS devices, user devices, reseller devices, etc. that may beused to preconfigure coservers, process content requests, serve content,and otherwise perform the processes discussed herein. The computingsystem includes a bus 801 (i.e., interconnect), at least one processor802, at least one communication port 803, a main memory 804, a removablestorage media 805, a read-only memory 806, and a mass storage device807. Processor(s) 802 can be any known processor, such as, but notlimited to, an Intel® Itanium® or Itanium 2® processor(s), AMD® Opteron®or Athlon MP® processor(s), or Motorola® lines of processors.Communication port 803 can be any of an RS-232 port for use with a modembased dial-up connection, a 10/100 Ethernet port, a Gigabit port usingcopper or fiber, or a USB port. Communication port(s) 803 may be chosendepending on a network such as a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide AreaNetwork (WAN), or any network to which the computer system connects. Theserver may be in communication with peripheral devices (e.g., displayscreen 830, input device 816 via Input/Output (I/O) port 809.

Main memory 804 can be Random Access Memory (RAM) or any other dynamicstorage device(s) commonly known in the art. Read-only memory 806 can beany static storage device(s) such as Programmable Read-Only Memory(PROM) chips for storing static information such as instructions forprocessor 802. Mass storage device 807 can be used to store informationand instructions. For example, hard disks such as the Adaptec® family ofSmall Computer Serial Interface (SCSI) drives, an optical disc, an arrayof disks such as Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), such asthe Adaptec® family of RAID drives, or any other mass storage devices,may be used.

Bus 801 communicatively couples processor(s) 802 with the other memory,storage and communications blocks. Bus 801 can be a PCI/PCI-X, SCSI, orUniversal Serial Bus (USB) based system bus (or other) depending on thestorage devices used. Removable storage media 805 can be any kind ofexternal hard drives, floppy drives, IOMEGA® Zip Drives, CompactDisc—Read Only Memory (CD-ROM), Compact Disc—Re-Writable (CD-RW),Digital Video Disk—Read Only Memory (DVD-ROM), etc.

Embodiments herein may be provided as a computer program product, whichmay include a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructionswhich may be used to program a computer (or other electronic devices) toperform a process. The machine-readable medium may include, but is notlimited to, floppy diskettes, optical discs, CD-ROMs, magneto-opticaldisks, ROMs, RAMs, erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs),electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs),magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other type ofmedia/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronicinstructions.

As shown, main memory may be encoded with an application 808 thatsupports functionality as discussed above with respect to the variousfigures and elsewhere. For example, in one embodiment, the application808 may include or otherwise implement the various processes and/orinstructions described herein. The application 808 (and/or otherresources as described herein) can be embodied as software code such asdata and/or logic instructions (e.g., code stored in the memory or onanother computer readable medium such as a disk) that supportsprocessing functionality according to different embodiments describedherein. During operation of one embodiment, processor(s) 802 accessesmain memory 804 via the use of bus 801 in order to launch, run, execute,interpret or otherwise perform the logic instructions of the application808. Execution of the application 808 produces processing functionalityin application process 850-2. In other words, the pricing process 850-2represents one or more portions of the pricing application 850-1performing within or upon the processor(s) 802 in the computer system800.

The description above includes example systems, methods, techniques,instruction sequences, and/or computer program products that embodytechniques of the present disclosure. However, it is understood that thedescribed disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. Inthe present disclosure, the methods disclosed may be implemented as setsof instructions or software readable by a device. Further, it isunderstood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methodsdisclosed are instances of example approaches. Based upon designpreferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy ofsteps in the method can be rearranged while remaining within thedisclosed subject matter. The accompanying method claims presentelements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not necessarilymeant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

It is believed that the present disclosure and many of its attendantadvantages should be understood by the foregoing description, and itshould be apparent that various changes may be made in the form,construction and arrangement of the components without departing fromthe disclosed subject matter or without sacrificing all of its materialadvantages. The form described is merely explanatory, and it is theintention of the following claims to encompass and include such changes.

While the present disclosure has been described with reference tovarious embodiments, it should be understood that these embodiments areillustrative and that the scope of the disclosure is not limited tothem. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvements arepossible. More generally, embodiments in accordance with the presentdisclosure have been described in the context of particularimplementations. Functionality may be separated or combined in blocksdifferently in various embodiments of the disclosure or described withdifferent terminology. These and other variations, modifications,additions, and improvements may fall within the scope of the disclosureas defined in the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: at least one processor; andmemory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the system to perform a set of operations, the set ofoperations comprising: receiving an indication from a customer of anaggregator of services, the indication comprising a selection of aproperty template, an origin, and an alias of the origin, wherein theaggregator of services is associated with a content distributionnetwork; generating an association between the alias of the origin, theaggregator of services, and the content distribution network; andgenerating, according to a filltarget template, an outbound fill targetassociated with the aggregator of services and the origin.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein generating the association comprises: establishing afirst canonical name (CNAME) record that associates the alias of theorigin with a domain of the aggregator of services, wherein the domainof the aggregator services is generated based on the alias of theorigin; establishing a second CNAME record that associates the domain ofthe aggregator services with the content distribution network.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the selected property template is one of setof property templates that are provided by the content distributionnetwork, wherein each property template of the set of property templatesis associated with a virtual internet protocol (IP).
 4. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the property template comprises one or more propertyparameters selected from a group of property parameters consisting of: adelivery region; a time-to-live value; a protocol for the alias of theorigin; a protocol for the origin; and a geo-blocking setting.
 5. Thesystem of claim 4, wherein the received indication further comprises acustomization indication for at least one property parameter of the oneor more property parameters.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein thefilltarget template defines the outbound fill target to be an addressthat is a combination of: a subpart of a domain associated with theorigin; and an extension associated with the aggregator of services. 7.The system of claim 6, wherein generating the outbound fill targetcomprises establishing a canonical name (CNAME) record that associatesthe address with the origin.
 8. A method for provisioning a customer ofan aggregator of services (AOS), comprising: receiving an indicationcomprising a selected property template, an origin domain of thecustomer, and an alias domain of the origin domain, wherein the AOS isassociated with a content distribution network; generating a firstcanonical name (CNAME) record that associates the alias domain with anAOS domain, wherein the AOS domain comprises at least a subpart of thealias domain; and generating a second CNAME record that associates theAOS domain with a content distribution network domain.
 9. The method ofclaim 8, further comprising: generating a third CNAME record thatassociates a fill target domain with the origin domain of the customer.10. The method of claim 9, wherein the fill target domain is acombination of: a subpart of the origin domain; and an extensionassociated with the AOS.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the selectedproperty template is one of set of property templates that are providedby the content distribution network, wherein each property template ofthe set of property templates is associated with a virtual internetprotocol (IP) of the content distribution network.
 12. The method ofclaim 8, wherein the selected property template comprises one or moreproperty parameters selected from a group of property parametersconsisting of: a delivery region; a time-to-live value; a protocol forthe alias domain; a protocol for the origin domain; and a geo-blockingsetting.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the received indicationfurther comprises a customization indication for at least one propertyparameter of the one or more property parameters.
 14. A methodcomprising: receiving an indication from a customer of an aggregator ofservices, the indication comprising a selection of a property template,an origin, and an alias of the origin, wherein the aggregator ofservices is associated with a content distribution network; generatingan association between the alias of the origin, the aggregator ofservices, and the content distribution network; and generating,according to a filltarget template, an outbound fill target associatedwith the aggregator of services and the origin.
 15. The method of claim14, wherein generating the association comprises: establishing a firstcanonical name (CNAME) record that associates the alias of the originwith a domain of the aggregator of services, wherein the domain of theaggregator services is generated based on the alias of the origin;establishing a second CNAME record that associates the domain of theaggregator services with the content distribution network.
 16. Themethod of claim 14, wherein the selected property template is one of setof property templates that are provided by the content distributionnetwork, wherein each property template of the set of property templatesis associated with a virtual internet protocol (IP).
 17. The method ofclaim 14, wherein the property template comprises one or more propertyparameters selected from a group of property parameters consisting of: adelivery region; a time-to-live value; a protocol for the alias of theorigin; a protocol for the origin; and a geo-blocking setting.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, wherein the received indication further comprises acustomization indication for at least one property parameter of the oneor more property parameters.
 19. The method of claim 14, wherein thefilltarget template defines the outbound fill target to be an addressthat is a combination of: a subpart of a domain associated with theorigin; and an extension associated with the aggregator of services. 20.The method of claim 14, wherein generating the outbound fill targetcomprises establishing a canonical name (CNAME) record that associatesan address with the origin.